Moapa Valley piles on points late to pull away from Chaparral

Members of the Moapa Valley High School football team, from left, Daxton Longman, Tyler Holmes and Logan Jaskson pose for a portrait at the Las Vegas Sun’s high school football media day August 2, 2017, at the South Point.

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The best game of Friday night might have come in Overton where Moapa Valley edged Chaparral in a contest that was closer than the 28-14 final score indicated.

The Pirates trailed 14-7 with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter before piling on a flurry of late points. Junior running back Braeden St. John scored the tying and go-ahead touchdowns on back-to-back possessions.

To tie it up, St. John caught a screen pass from junior quarterback Luke Bennett on a 4th-and-10 play from Chaparral’s 13-yard line and darted into the end zone. He scored on a 26-yard rush once Moapa Valley got the ball back to put it up with only minutes to play.

Chaparral then turned it over, and Moapa Valley was able to score one final time on a short rush from sophomore running back Hayden Redd.

“It was really a defensive battle for most of the night,” Moapa Valley coach Brent Lewis said. “It came down to that key play when the game was tied on 4th and 10.”

The overall statistics were even, with Moapa Valley barely eclipsing 300 total yards to Chaparral’s 280 yards. Chaparral sophomore Sheik Fofanah got his team off to the early lead with 135 rushing yards on 20 attempts.

Bennett might have been Moapa Valley’s most effective offensive option, as he completed six of nine passes for 105 yards.

The victory puts Moapa Valley in control of the Class 3A Sunrise League.